Country Mouse

Paula Deen Does ‘Southern’ Fare … With A Stick Of Butter : NPR (via doree)

(via rachael-maddux)

I have long considered Paula Deen something of a caricature of herself, but I actually thought she was pretty charming talking to Steve Inskeep this morning.  I always really like hearing her talk about Albany (I always really like hearing anyone talk about Albany).  Her heavy-handed use of bacon and butter garners a lot of criticism given what we know about what those things can do to a person if consumed in excess.  But the fact is that she is in the business of southern food, and ham hocks and lard are staples of the traditional southern pantry (and variations thereof are staples of French pantries, Asian pantries, Latin pantries, and so on).  I guess it’s her personality some people don’t like, because I don’t think it’s the butter.  People love butter, you guys, and you know why? Because it’s delicious and it improves everything.  Just don’t eat too much of it, and get your damn cholesterols checked. 

To me, she evokes a lot of nostalgia, because the way she cooks is the way the women of my family did and sometimes still do, on occasion.  And I’m not talking about the doughnut burger, that abomination.  I’m talking about greens, and grits, and boiled icing.  When she talked about making dumplings with ice water, and how hard they are to roll out, that took me back. I spent years sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table watching her do labor-intensive things like that, on literally a daily basis.  And mullet roe!  Don’t tell her I told you but my mother used to LOVE mullet roe.  I eat wheat toast and drink carrot juice for breakfast and haven’t thought about mullet roe in years and will probably live longer for it, but I do love remembering these things and am so thankful and proud they were part of my upbringing.  I mean, I was a fat child (and young adult), but I know how to cook and I know about food, which is something I wouldn’t trade for anything.  And these things she talks about — about how to make grits with salted water, or else — are our culture.  I think they’re the most important part of our heritage; I know they’re the traditions most deeply ingrained in me, and I don’t want them to be forgotten.  So I guess I just appreciate Paula’s keeping it alive.  Not that she’s the only one.  People are cooking like this everyday in South Georgia and also, really, in plenty of restaurants here in Atlanta.  Michael Ruhlman in Ratio said that he believes “it’s a cook’s moral obligation to add more butter given the chance” and I bet the chefs at most restaurants we frequent agree.  Paula just talks about it. 

(via rachael-maddux)